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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Oct 2009, 224 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2011, 224 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Pam Watts
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Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. But her mother is in rehab, and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. And when a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, her already-worn thread of faith begins to unravel. (Young Adults)
Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam's personal one, and the already-worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.
In her third novel, acclaimed author Sara Zarr examines the coexistence of affliction and hope, and what happens when everything you thought you believed---about God, about your family, about yourself---is transformed.
Day 1
Saturday, early August.
The whole world is wilting.
Shriveling. Giving up. Dying.
Maybe not the whole world. Somewhere, I guess, it’s not ninety-one
degrees at four in the morning. I would like to be in that place.
I would like to be somewhere, anywhere, that life feels possible
and not smothered under a layer of heat and hopelessness. I’m tired
of waking up every two hours in a puddle of sweat, and tired of
every day discovering there’s something else that’s ruined or broken
or falling apart. Yesterday it was the TV. Today, it’s the ceiling
fan in my room, the brokenness of which I discovered when I woke
up wondering where the air went. I slipped out the sliding glass
door into the backyard hoping for a miracle of something below
eighty, and I now realize I can add the yard to the list of minor
tragedies that make up my life these days.
The solar luminaries my dad put in last summer give just enough
light that I can see the disaster...
At its heart, Once Was Lost is about a girl living through family life so painful that it causes her to question her long-held faith in God. It's a good book for thinking and reflecting, for feeling and remembering. I recommend it to anyone who has lived through tough times and has found herself asking: Is there a God? And if so, where is he?..continued
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(Reviewed by Pam Watts).
Because the US Census doesn't collect information about religious affiliation, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) began its own survey in 1990 with 113,000 interviews, and followed up with 54,000 in 2008.
According to the ARIS Survey, Nones make up 15% of the US adult population, up from 8% in 1990. So who are they? Nones are simply the growing number of folks who answer "none" when asked for their religious identity or affiliation. Which doesn't mean they're necessarily non-believers - only about 7% of Nones are atheists, a third identify as agnostic and over half believe in a higher power.
In the general US population, while the number of atheists and agnostics has more than tripled in the last two decades ...
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